Paris by Rutherford

I have just discovered another favorite author, Edward Rutherfurd. He writes like my favorite author of many years, James Michener (1907 - 1997) and author of more than 40 books, most of which were historical novels. Michener's historical fiction were typically on countries or geographical areas, and he would travel the area for months, interacting with locals, historians, researchers, delving into the history. Then he would organize a rich history in his mensa-brain and create novel characters (pun intended) to live from, often preceding, recorded time in the area to the present. His books are epics, they are historical dynasties of people not famous but who, by their very lives, were the foundation to what exists today, they are tomes of knowledge! I've read several of his books, which usually are 600+ pages, and I marvel that every page is filled with rich content. Michener doesn't waste words; he shapes thought and imagery with every word!

Edward Rutherfurd (1948 - present) writes rich historical novels in epic and tome-like multi-generational format like Michener. Since I've only read this book by Rutherford, I can't really compare overall content, but from looking at what Rutherford puts on the shelves, Rutherfurd writes on not only countries — e.g. Sarum (1987), Russka (1991), Dublin: Foundation (2003), Ireland: Awakening (2006), China (this year 2017) — but also on deep histories of big cities — London (1997), New York (2009), Paris (2013). 

Paris, the book I just finished, is 832 pages. The book opens with a light history of the days before Julius Caesar saw the possibilities of the mud-flats and islands and rich valley where the throbbing city of Paris now is. The tribal village on the Seine River was ideally located for development, a hub, a road to see what lay beyond, and so the village developed, shaped by conquerors, reshaped by the Huns, the Franks, the Dark Ages. 

Rutherfurd writes the dramatic history of Paris, starting in the year 1216, by following the dynastic line of four families. Each family represents a different socioeconomic class of people that contributed to building the city into the modern, refined and travel-venerated city it is today: a family of street persons descending from a cutthroat, a noble titled family blood-related to the king, a merchant family that directly contributed to the financial and socioeconomic development of the city and a branch of which broke off and represented emigration to Canada, and a Jewish family that developed the learned centers of Paris and in payment received ostracization, deportment and even death as their legacy. 

In the 1600s two other family dynasties were added: another merchant family strategically intermarrying with the Renard merchant family and which represented a growing hierarchy of merchant classes and the unspoken taboo of not marrying outside of one's economic level. The other family (the Gascons) was a look at the laboring class who with their blood and sweat built the physical foundation of the city. In fact, a greater part of the latter half of the book was about the Gascons and how this family met great people and how the social barriers of class started collapsing, particularly with world war, and how war brought these families into a tight network together, having to interact together, and this beginning of integration representing the modern Paris — families still separated by socioeconomic histories but integrating and recognizing that each socioeconomic class played its part in the Paris of the 20th century.